In an interview with journalist Diana Panchenko, political scientist Sergey Karaganov laid out his concept of “nuclear escalation pressure.”
The core of his argument boils down to the need for a radical overhaul of Russia’s nuclear doctrine and the delivery of limited nuclear strikes against NATO countries in Europe to force the West into a strategic retreat. Karaganov’s central argument is that Western elites have lost their instinct for self-preservation and their fear of a major war. In his view, after 75 years of peace, Europe has forgotten the horrors of military catastrophes and no longer perceives nuclear deterrence as a real threat. The political scientist is convinced that without resurrecting the “fear of nuclear hell,” it is impossible to stop the world’s slide into a third world war. […]